Christian
"I want everyone to understand the difficulty of this case" the judge begins. I grab Ana's hand holding my breath. "Both families have been victimized by a third party that we have yet to identify, making this a very delicate matter. Let's not forget that there is a child's life hanging in the balance. That is why I have decided that the best course of action is to award joint legal custody both the Grey's and the King's."
"Yes" Katelyn…Taylor yells sitting behind the Kings next to that boy, Governor Masters, that girl we found at the Kings home.
"As I was saying" the judge says pointedly looking at her. "The Grey's and the King's will share legal custody, but I am awarding temporary physical custody to the Grey's for a mandatory period of no less than six months."
Mrs. King breaks down in tears and I let out my breath. Ana shudders in relief.
"Your honor" their lawyer rise. "You are sending a minor across the country to live with strangers."
"The Grey's are by law and DNA her parents they are entitled to sole custody, but Miss King is also entitled to have her opinion taken into consideration" the judge refutes. "Hence why I made it mandatory for only six months that is enough time for her to acclimate to her new family and for them to work together to devise a schedule."
"Your honor, the child should be relocated as soon as possible in order for her to acclimate fully with her family" our lawyer says. My father has guaranteed us that he is the best and so far he has delivered.
"What about school?" Mrs. King asks.
"She will remain in the custody of the King's until May thirtieth the last day of school at Asheboro prep is the tenth that leaves three days to make sure everything is in order. Court is adjourned" the judge slams the gavel and retreats to her chambers.
"We get to take her home" Ana whispers to me smiling for the first time in a week.
"TAYLOR" Mrs. King yells as Taylor runs out of the courtroom the boy and girl close behind her. I nod at Ryan to follow her.
"We should go after her" Ana says standing.
"Ryan has her" I say rubbing her back. "She just needs time to absorb the information."
She will be with us soon enough…
Taylor
"Taylor stop" Graham yells behind me. I don't stop I keep running with my shoes in my hand. My chest burns and I begin to slow down. I drop to my knees and that is when I notice the tears cascading down my face. "Taylor?" Graham says kneeling in front of me.
"I can't breathe" I rasp pulling at the collar of my dress.
"Hold on I have your pump" Graham says digging through his suit pockets.
"No it's not that" I cough out. "It's a pressure like I am standing in the middle of a room yelling and no one can hear me and I am running out of screams."
"I hear you" he murmurs kissing my hair.
"Why is this happening to me?" I ask him. "What did I do?"
"You have not done anything" he urges whipping my face with his handkerchief. "We will get through this."
"We only have six weeks" I argue. "We won't even be together for summer, I am going to have to go to a new school, and I will be alone."
"I promise not to let that happen" Kara vows and Graham nods in agreement.
"We had plans" I cry.
"And we will keep those plans" Kara swears. "I will make sure of it."
"Miss Grey" Ryan says appearing behind us with Shawn. He has been following me since Monday, but I didn't learn his name until Tuesday. "I am going to have to ask you to return to the court house."
"What if she says no?" Kara challenges standing to her feet.
"Your father has given me permission to use bodily force to bring you in" Shawn says smirking at my cocked eyebrow. "If that fails I have a stun gun."
"You should just go" Graham advices pulling me to my feet. Steven pulls up to the curb jumping out and begins to walk back towards the courthouse. "I would hate to see you pee on yourself…again."
"I was five" I say hitting his arm. "I couldn't even reach the toilet let alone get off my jumpsuit. And Shawn, do not fraternize with the enemy."
"I thought I should get to know him before I move in with him and the other members of security" Shawn says flippantly.
"Move in?" I ask stunned. I get into the car with everyone.
"Yeah move in" he says sardonically getting into the driver's seat. "You have been my charge since you were four do you seriously think I am not going to see this through?"
"What about your life here?" I ask leaning towards his seat.
"I don't have a wife or kids and I have so many burned exes it is time I left town" he laughs. He has always been candid about his whorish ways, never going in to detail, but always telling me about his dates.
"Thank you" I say wrapping my arms around his neck.
"Alright now sit back in your seat and buckle up" he says sternly.
When we pull up to the courthouse it is surrounded by paparazzi. It is a miracle I got past them when I ran out the side door.
"How does my hair look?" Kara asks smoothing her hands over her blond locks. I roll my eyes at her
"Perfect as always mine on the other hand looks like a birds nest" I say not even bothering to touch up my hair.
"I love your auburn mane" Graham says grabbing a fist full and kissing it. I see Ryan peer at us through the rear view mirror. This was going to be my life for the next six months; having a creepy old guy watch my every move so he can then report it to the stalker extraordinaire Mr. Grey. The only benefit of being on house arrest for four days is the uninterrupted hacking. Since I had his name I was able to uncover loads of information, all professional, but still better than nothing. Upon attempting to hack into his server I met Barney, who surprisingly does not suck as much as the other members of the Grey camp. Of course he didn't grant me access, but he did say he would help me with my search for answers on how, I at two weeks, wound up on the other side of the country.
Barney and I have tag teamed the search and have been making a lot of head way; I had to have been taken from the hospital by someone with medical training. The severity of my bronchopulmonary dysplasia required constant monitoring that could only have been treated by someone who knew I had it and how to treat. The people I thought were my birth parents actually existed as did their daughter, but I was not her and there is no way to see if the baby the Grey's had cremated was her either. One thing we do know is whoever planned this did not do it on a whim. They had to have seriously thought this out and planned it through out Mrs. Grey's pregnancy.
"I am so happy you are back" my mom breathed in relief hugging me fiercely. "Don't ever scare me like that again."
"I am sorry" I mumble against her chest. "I just needed some air" I add pulling back. The Grey's were hovering in the back ground. "So how are we going to do this?" I ask Mr. Grey plainly.
"What do you mean?" he asks seeming startled that I spoke to him.
"Are you going to demand I spend the next six months at the Masters or are you going to trust my parents not to smuggle me out of the country?" I ask in a bored voice. "Because I would really just like to go home, that is unless you want to ruin my life more."
"Katelyn…Taylor we are not trying to ruin your life" he says sincerely.
"Well you could have fooled" me I say sarcastically. "Have you ever heard the saying 'you catch more flies with honey then you do vinegar."
"I have" he says running his hand through his hair.
"Well you came to my town and threw vinegar on every inch of my family" I inform him. "And now what? You want me to act like it never happened well it did and we are all worse because of it."
"Let's sit down and talk" Mrs. Grey says trying to diffuse the situation. "We get to know each other, become a family… all of us." It looked like it hurt her to say that.
"The time for that was before you had her parents arrested" my mom says rolling her eyes which goes against every ounce of her debutant\southern bell training. She has been breaking those rules that a lot lately. "Our lawyer will talk to yours."
"Can we please stop fighting" I sigh. "I hate this as much as you do, but the judge has ruled and there is nothing we can do about it."
"That is very mature of you" Mr. Grey says nodding in agreement. I almost make a snarky remark…almost.
"Yes very mature" my dad says eyeing me suspiciously. What can I say, the man knows me well. "How about we meet in one hour at our lawyer's office?" He guides us towards the side exit.
"Oh, bring Barney" I say over my shoulder.
"I don't know who you are talking about" Mr. Grey feigns ignorance.
"Oh please" I laugh. "I caught him trying to hack into my main frame. He is good; do not get me wrong; I wouldn't have known he was there if he hadn't tried to take down my social media. He went to MIT?"
"Yes" he admits. I smirk walking out.
"What game are you playing at?" Daddy asks as soon as we are securely in the car.
"I wanted them to get joint custody so they would have no reason to complain" I inform him. "Them getting physical custody threw a kink in my plan, but it hasn't completely derailed them. I will be sixteen soon I can file for emancipation and then I can live wherever I want."
"What?" Mom asks looking at me horrified.
"Why do you think Big Daddy ad the boys weren't at the court?" I ask. "This is our contingency plan."
"You are a master mind" daddy says with pride in his voice.
"I learned from the best" I say with just as much pride.
We will figure this out…
Ana
"How do you think this is going to go?" I ask Christian sitting in the conference room. We have been waiting for the past ten minutes.
"It doesn't really matter" he says calmly.
"Yes it does" I argue. "She is only required by law to live with us for six months, but what about after. We will have her for holidays and summer for what a year and a half before she turns eighteen and wants nothing to do with us."
"I will get an extension and another followed by another" he says with confidence. "I will get a million injunctions if that is what it will take. And in that time she will learn who her real family is."
"But what if she doesn't?" I ask franticly. I begin to twist my hands in lap.
"She will" he answers assuredly.
"But what…"
"Ana" he says placing his hand over mine. "She will." I nod unconvinced.
"Sorry we are late" Mrs. King says entering the room. "Tay wanted to change her clothes and I had to… never mind" she stops abruptly. I could almost see the walls she was putting up, shutting herself down.
"That is okay" I say politely. We messed up; I can see that now. I was so blinded by the fact that she was alive that I allowed myself to get swept up in Christian's train of crazy. We should have done more recon we should have talked to them appealed to their sense of decency.
Katelyn is wearing jean shorts that were close to being too short with a white tank top and bright yellow blazer with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. Her yellow pumps remind me of something Kate or Mia would wear. She looks so much like Phoebe they could be twins. Mr. King pulls out a seat at the head of the table while their lawyer sits in front of ours and he and his wife sit across from Christian and me.
"So let's get down to business" their lawyer says. We spend two hours going over everything from trust funds to pediatricians and the school she will be attending while she is in Seattle.
"Where is that girl?" Katelyn asks scrunching her eyebrows.
"She had school" Christian informed her. "You will be attending the same school as her."
"I want to be home schooled" Katelyn says flippantly.
"No" Christian says leaving no room for argument. Katelyn didn't hear it that way.
"Yes" she says sighing as if she is bored. "I will not attend a school with people I do not know while there is this circus surrounding me, my family and yours. It will already be hell getting through these next six weeks I will no subject myself to four more months of this mess."
"I think that's fair" I say placing my hand on Christian's leg to keep him from arguing.
"We will organize her tutors" Mr. King adds.
"Now on to the most important piece of business" Katelyn says pushing back her chair. "My birthday."
"We will have it at Big Daddy's house like we do every year" Mrs. King says as though it is obvious.
"It will be the first ever birthday that we will get to celebrate with her" I argue.
"You can come to the party" Katelyn offers.
"If I am not mistaken her birthday falls within her time with us" Christian informs them. "We will handle her birthday."
"We have been planning her sixteenth birthday since she was four" Mrs. King contends. "We already have everything planned."
"We can do anything you are doing here in Seattle" Christian reasons.
"I am inviting everyone in my school" Katelyn yells. "Literally everyone, which alone is four hundred people. You are going to fly out over four hundred people?"
"We can figure all of that out" I reason.
"And what about my Gotcha day trip to Paris"?" She asks looking directly at Christian.
"We can take you" Christian offers. "I am fluent in French."
"I want to go with my family" she says through gritted teeth.
"Taylor calm down" Mrs. King says soothingly. "We will figure this out. How about you go out to the hall with Kara and Graham?" She leaves the room reluctantly.
"You coddle her that is why she feels like she can talk to adults that way" Christian says causing my jaw to drop.
"Mr. Grey I acknowledge that your family has been through a lot and that is why I have up until this point been patient" Mrs. King begins rising from her seat. "But if you fix your mouth to say one more thig about our parenting I will not be responsible for my actions. My daughter is a beautiful, smart, honest and caring person and you would be lucky if your daughter is half as good as she is."
"I think this is all for today" their lawyer says rising and escorting them out of the room.